Everyone knows about the five oceans on the planet but a new discovery has hinted that there might be a sixth ocean hiding beneath its surface. Scientists have discovered the presence of ringwoodite, which itself contains water, in a diamond from Botswana. The diamond originated from 660 km within the Earth’s surface, an area known as the transition zone. The presence of the mineral adds yet another piece of evidence to the growing body which suggests that the Earth’s mantle may have a significant presence of water.
The scientists published their paper in the peer-reviewed journal ‘Nature Geoscience’.
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This is the second time that scientists have found traces of ringwoodite in a deep-originating diamond, the first one being discovered in 2014. Since then, geologists have been looking for evidence that the Earth’s mantle may contain around 1 percent water by weight, though in the form of porous minerals instead of free-flowing oceans. A later study in 2017 estimated that the weight of the hidden water under the Earth’s surface could weigh as much as all the water on Earth’s oceans combined.
Samples like the diamond are some of the best sources of information for scientists who are trying to understand the physical and chemical compositions of what goes under the Earth’s surface. While the average thickness of the continental crust ranges 15-20 km, the Earth’s mantle is about 2,900 km deep. The innermost layer of the mantle is nearly solid due to the immense pressure while the outer layer is mostly liquid.
The transition zone between the outer and inner mantle is located around 440-680 km under the surface of the planet. This is the same region that the diamond containing ringwoodite originated from.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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